Alien Hominid (Video game)
28, 2007 on the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points ($10 USD.) Origin of Alien Hominid Alien Hominid began on the popular Adobe Flash website, Newgrounds, in August, 2002. It is often referred to as the Alien Hominid "prototype" by The Behemoth. The online version was programmed by Tom Fulp, who owns Newgrounds; while the 2D artwork was done by Dan Paladin (who also goes by the online alias "Synj"). This game features a little yellow alien who has been shot down. Fbi Agents try to capture the alien as the alien kills them. By using the Alien's PDA, a mini game can be played. This mini game is reminiscent of early platform games like Pitfall or Super Mario Bros.. The graphics are presented as simplistic monochromatic designs, but the animation is fluid. The player must guide a stick figure character to the end of the level, each level being only one screen large. The player(s) must traverse around blocks of many shapes and sizes and defeat all of the enemies in the level and then travel to the exit. The game has 200 levels and a level editor. The player has many moves at his or her disposal, such as jumping, double-jumping, pushing rocks and boats, riding in the boats, and last but not least killing himself to start the level over. The minigame also has several environmental hazards such as spikes, crumbling floors, and water. It is possible to play this PDA game with up to four players simultaneously. Additionally, the game was modified for the PAL release. Challenge This minigame is basically a condensed version of the main game for one or two players. There are two modes: either competitive play against a fellow player or a co-op mode where the objective is to eliminate enemies. The goal of each level in this minigame is to achieve a point total of 25,000. As one progresses in the main game, additional levels for the challenge mode are unlocked. There are three levels for Challenge mode: *Freeway. This level is taken from Level 1-2. All of the enemies in the main level are represented here, including the F.B.I, the helicopters, the limos, and the armored vehicles. *Desert. This level is taken from Levels 3-1 and 3-2. This level includes vultures, scorpions, and tornadoes. The level does not include any version of soldier because there were none in the desert levels. *Area 51. This level is taken from Levels 3-3 and 3-4. Includes most of the enemies from these levels, except the thunderbites (blue dogs with large teeth). America and Europe ifferences When the PAL version was developed for Europe in 2005, a number of new features were added. *25 levels built by U.S. fans were added to the 200 level PDA Game. *A "replay" function was added to single-player. *A brand new 2-4 player minigame called "All You Can Eat", featuring the Fat Kids, was made exclusively for the PAL version (although it was later added to the 360 version). It is a button masher where the player must eat all of the food on the screen to win. *A glitch in level 3-5 that allowed a player to get massive amounts of points was removed. For Xbox players, Xbox Live features were included. This enabled high scores to be recorded and displayed internationally along with the ability of downloading additional PDA Game levels. Characters *Alien Hominid- The main focus of the game. The Alien is gender-neutral, as stated in Nintelligent's preview of the game 1. The Alien Hominid is fast, agile, quick-thinking, and is strong enough to lift and throw an average human. Its weaponry includes an alien ray gun, a large knife, and a small supply of grenades. It can also jump on top of its enemies and ride them, and then either bite off the head of the victim, pick up the victim and throw him at other enemies, or jump off again. *The FBI- These are the main enemies in the first five levels of the game, so they are the least advanced enemies. They can shoot, duck, jump (in some cases), and drive many vehicles. The FBI shot down Alien Hominid in the first place, then stole the crashed (but still intact) UFO for unknown reasons, provoking the Alien into attacking them. They also possess large "war machines", which serve as bosses, and an extensive air force in level 1-5. They appear to have no qualms about killing civilians if it means eliminating the Alien. *The KGB- These are the main enemies for the second world of the game (USSR). They can do a bit more than the FBI, like pop out of the snow, jump and shoot, block close combat attacks with their guns, and drive more sophisticated vehicles. Also, they appear to work together more cooperatively. The supposed Commander of the Soviet force (called Boris in the HD version's official site) is seen many times in world 2. After Alien Hominid escapes the FBI air force in level 1-5, the Commander is seen trying to guide a nuclear missile towards the U.S.A. However, Alien Hominid accidentally collides with the missile, blowing him back to Russia. The player then chases the Commander, who has stolen the UFO for his own purposes, across much of Russia. Several times the Commander activates large war machines, serving as bosses, to slow the Alien down. In level 2-5, he uses birdseed to attract large, deadly birds. He then serves as the boss of the same level, flying the UFO himself. After his defeat, he attempts to parachute to safety, but is attacked by a giant bird. The bird then drops the Commander onto a conveyor belt filled with lethal buzzsaws. *The Area 51 Soldiers- These are the main enemies in the third world, and are also the hardest. They can block slices much more often than the KGB, jump and dodge easily, dig, throw the player after they grab the player, and are not as scared as the other soldiers when their comrades are killed. After Alien Hominid destroys the numerous Russian spacecraft trying to prevent his escape, a USAF ship, shaped like a whale, captures the Alien and attempts to bring him to Area 51. However, the Alien escapes from the military pickup truck and, once again, pursues its stolen UFO. *The Fat Kids- These are NPCs (non-playable characters) that give the player power-ups and take the player to Level 1-2 and Level 1-3. In Level 1-5, they destroy one of the helicopters carrying a piece of the dismantled UFO (until this point, the player had no weapons on the UFO, and could not attack). Three of them also bring Alien Hominid to its ship and back home at the end of the game. They also appear in the Soviet levels, but they wear bear suits because of the cold. They begin helping because an FBI agent takes one's ice cream cone in the opening cutscene. Ironically in the original online game, players had the option of killing the kid in the opening moments of the game, who is also the only one in the whole game, but the player has no choice of killing them or not in the console edition, they dodge the player's shots every time, possibly to make the game more child friendly. They played a much larger part in the console version. *The Installball- An eyeball in a robot. Boss of Level 1-1. When destroyed, the eyeball comes out. Later, in level 3-4, he attacks the player again in a big mouth body with a knife and fork. After the player defeats him, he helps the player in level 3-5 by destroying all the Area 51 agents by shooting plasma balls (it should be noted that the soldiers in this level are retreating and do not fight back). He follows the Area 51 truck which has the alien's ship. He is in the alien's spaceship in the ending cinema, which shows the alien going back to space and shooting down a tractor beam to bring the Fat Kids with him. *The Beefy Alien Hominid/AH Clone- This is the last boss of the game. He is a muscular version of the Alien Hominid who was created by the Area 51 Soldiers in hopes of fending off the Alien's attacks. It is on level 3-5. This boss has all of the Alien Hominid's attacks including grenades that will set fire to the floor. The fight begins in the Area 51 base after the help the player gets from the Eyeball and the fight ends in the sky atop a giant slowly-falling-apart version of the Alien's spaceship. A theory by SushiGummy states: "1: The Aliens go to earth to put something into the pyramids. 2: The Castle Crashers get in the way and fight off the aliens. 3: The beefy alien fears for his life and escapes, while destroying the Alien Ship in order to make it look like he died along with the others. 4: All the Aliens die, with the exception of the beefy alien, who escapes, the Instant Ball, who goes along with the castle crashers, and the little blue aliens, who live somehow. 5: The Beefy alien hides for about a thousand years. 6: An alien from whatever planet they're from is sent to either find/fight the beefy alien, investigate the Alien Ship that went missing, or retrieve whatever is in the pyramids. 7: Meanwhile, the beefy alien joins the FBI to fight off the alien, and along with him the Instant Ball joins. The little blue aliens must have refused, which would explain why they were in boxes in Area 51. 8: The beefy alien builds machines for the FBI, in hopes to kill the alien. (probably not, since the Russians had the technology too) 9: The alien goes through his adventure, trying to abort the mission and escape from Earth, but ends up befriending the Instant Ball and freeing the little blue aliens. 10: The alien fights the beefy alien and kills him, later going back to his home planet." Alien Hominid HD Alien Hominid HD, a remake of the game for Xbox 360, was released on February 28, 2007, for 800 points ($10 USD). It has the following features: *High Definition graphics *Widescreen mode *Co-operative multiplayer (offline), and online minigames playable for up to 4 players 2 *Downloadable PDA levels The PDA packs are Starter (comes with game), Hot New, Euro, Classic 1, Classic 2, and Challenge. All are 150 points. Press Even before its release, Alien Hominid received notice in gaming magazines such as Play, GMR, Edge, and even popular non-gaming magazines such as Wired. In reviews for the game, it was critically acclaimed for its old-school style gameplay, tough level of difficulty, and quirky humor. The game also won many small awards, most notably at the Independent Games Festival (for Innovation In Visual Arts, Technical Excellence and the Audience Award). Copies of the game are sold primarily through its online website, www.alienhominid.com, for ten dollars (American). The website also offers merchandise such as skate decks, t-shirts and action figures. The website was developed by Tom Fulp. Alien Hominid became one of the games spoofed by Mega64 on June 3, 2008. Reception/Scores *Edge magazine- 7/10 *Gamespot- 8.4/10 *GameSpy- 3.5/5 *GameZone- 8/10 *Game Revolution- B- IGN- 8.1/10 Official Playstation 2 Magazine (UK)- 7/10 TotalGamerZone- 8.2/10 X-Play (Alien Hominid HD)- 4/5 Trivia *The Alien Hominid appears as a playable character in the Newgrounds Rumble game at Newgrounds' official website. *Players can unlock hats to personalise their Hominids, one of them being the haircut of Tom Fulp, co-creator of the game and owner of Newgrounds. *The level in which Hominid reclaims its UFO and uses the gravity beam to drop soldiers into a woodchipper, is a homage to one of Tom Fulp's early flash games, UFA. *In the episode The Blue Comet, on The Sopranos, A.J. can be heard playing Alien Hominid on Xbox 360. Numerous pictures of the Newgrounds logo, SYNJ Industries logo and The Behemoth logo can be seen throughout the game. *In the beginning of the original flash version, the tone from the Steven Spielberg movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is heard. *The first miniboss in level 1-1, the "Castle of Crap" in level 1-3, the "enlarge your body parts" building in level 1-4, and the first of the main bosses in level 1-4 are all taken from the original flash game. *Hominid is an unlockable character in The Behemoth's second game, Castle Crashers, and is instantly unlocked for those who purchased the full version of Alien Hominid HD. *The install ball is one of the animal orbs - small round helpers, mostly looking like various animals- available to find in the above mentioned "Castle Crashers". The yeti is also an animal orb in the game. *There is also a level based of Alien Hominid in Castle Crashers, entitled "Alien Ship". The only NPC on the ship is a large, muscular Hominid that was imprisoned for unknown reasons, which might be the Hominid Clone. Category:Bosses Category:Bosses